News and Letters, March 1998

After bombing, JACKSON ADVOCATE 'still here'

by Michael Flug

Jackson, Miss.-The JACKSON ADVOCATE newspaper, the largest and oldest Black-owned weekly in Mississippi-and the state's only pro-labor newspaper, Black or white-was firebombed by arsonists in the early morning hours of Jan. 26. The attackers broke open the front door of the ADVOCATE offices, poured gasoline on furniture and papers, and then threw in two fire-bombs. The fire swept the first floor newsroom, destroying investigative files, computer equipment, furniture, and a collection of rare Black history books and documents gathered by ADVOCATE publisher Charles Tisdale. The fire did more than $100,000 in damage to the offices, located in the landmark Hill-Holly building on Farish street in the heart of historic Black Jackson.

In the weeks since the fire, it has become clear that something else was also ignited. A broad-based movement of civil rights and union activists, church leaders and neighborhood residents has burst into action, raising funds to keep the newspaper going, and holding rallies to demand that the authorities arrest the arsonists and uncover those who hired them.

There may be a long wait for arrests. Doris Saunders, retired professor of Mass Communications at Jackson State University, believes that "it probably won't be solved. That's traditional in Jackson. The only difference between this and past years is that there is a new Black mayor, Harvey Johnson, and a new Black police chief. But I don't expect them to find the perpetrators." Mississippi's lone Black Congressman, Bennie Thompson, succeeded in getting the FBI and the ATF to agree to investigate. But three weeks later, neither agency had even interviewed Charles Tisdale.

The JACKSON ADVOCATE has been vandalized or bombed more than 20 times since Mr. Tisdale bought the paper in 1978. In 1981 and 1982 Ku Klux Klan members shot up the office with automatic weapons and tried to burn it down. Then, as now, the attackers failed to halt the publication of a single issue. "We have reopened in temporary offices across the street, and we came out only 11 hours later than usual," said associate publisher Alice Tisdale. "We know how to keep going. But we can't pinpoint who is responsible for the attacks. Every week there is something in the paper that will make people angry. We see ourselves as agitators, trying to get the dirt out."

Such a mission surely creates powerful enemies. The "dirt" being dug up is not only about the openly Jim Crow Mississippi of the 1960s and earlier; it is dirt unearthed about what is happening in Mississippi today. In a state which reminds travelers entering on its interstate highways that "only positive Mississippian [is] spoken here," the JACKSON ADVOCATE single-handedly investigated and publicized 46 Mississippi jail house hangings in the early 1990s. Nearly every issue of the paper includes an expose of Mississippi's still-pervasive racism and official corruption.

Many of these battles have centered on struggles of Black workers. The ADVOCATE took on both Warren Hood, one of Jackson's leading power brokers, and former IUE International President William Bywater, in an eight-year campaign supporting Hood Furniture workers, right to a union of their own choice. And the paper has consistently backed Jackson's municipal workers' unions in their still-ongoing struggle for recognition.

For the past several years, first during the administration of Jackson Mayor Kane Ditto, and continuing since the 1997 election of Jackson's first Black mayor, Harvey Johnson, the ADVOCATE has fought relentlessly against Capital Center Inc. (CCI). CCI, which Mr. Tisdale calls "a group of wealthy, powerful, and essentially white business owners supported by government officials" is seeking to privatize certain governmental services, and to impose their lucrative scheme for urban renewal on the historic Farish Street Black Entertainment District adjacent to downtown Jackson.

Stephanie Parker-Weaver, Mississippi Executive Secretary of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), charged that the CCI scheme, to which several prominent Black politicians have also signed on, seeks to "create a Memphis-style Beale Street entertainment district to help revitalize downtown Jackson. Nothing on Beale Street is Black-owned currently."

The Advocate joined with SCLC, civil rights and neighborhood preservation groups to fight the CCI plan. Mr. Tisdale sued CCI in 1996 for misuse of government funds, and amended his lawsuit on Jan. 19, 1998-only a week before the bombing-to include $30 million in punitive and compensatory damages.

"We don't know who did the firebombing," Mr. Tisdale told N&L, "but the fact is that the white power structure in Mississippi today is working very well through its Black servants." Ms. Parker-Weaver agreed, arguing that "the JACKSON ADVOCATE was firebombed for one reason and one reason only. It has spoken 'truth to power' for many, many years-Black power and white power." At the same time she cautioned that "we are not by any means saying that CCI officials and/or their proponents actually firebombed the ADVOCATE themselves or had knowledge of the bombing."

The real question, says Ms. Parker-Weaver, is "who would feel comfortable enough to firebomb the JACKSON ADVOCATE in the first year of the administration of Jackson's first Black mayor?"

In court, Mr. Tisdale's suit was assigned to Judge Swann Yerger. He turns out, Ms. Parker-Weaver said, to be "the brother of Wirt Yerger, a founding board member of CCI. Swann and Wirt Yerger are cousins of Byron De La Beckwith, the convicted murderer of Medgar Evers." Wirt Yerger is a major figure in the state Republican party. Judge Yerger refused to excuse himself from the case, although that decision is being appealed.

Not until after the bombing were SCLC activists able to uncover the actual CCI rendering of the plan for the Farish Street Entertainment District. The artist's rendering showed the site of the building housing the JACKSON ADVOCATE as the "Walter Payton Club." Among the detailed drawings of Farish Street approved by Mayor Harvey Johnson, the ADVOCATE was nowhere to be found.

Three days after the firebombing, hundreds of ADVOCATE supporters, some from as far away as New Orleans, participated in a prayer vigil and rally in front of the burned-out building. A JACKSON ADVOCATE DEFENSE FUND was established to help rebuild the ADVOCATE; it has already received contributions from civil rights groups, women's organizations, unions and individuals across Mississippi and outside the state. But the JACKSON CLARION LEDGER, the largest daily newspaper in the state, has refused to mention the Fund. Ms. Parker-Weaver noted that "Duane McCallister, its publisher, is a founding and current board member of CCI."

Mr. Tisdale sums up the situation by remarking that "Mississippi is not a government in the generally accepted sense of the word. It is a conspiracy between those who have and those who govern." As for those who want to see the ADVOCATE silenced, he offers this succinct response: "I'm still here."

Donations may be mailed to: JACKSON ADVOCATE DEFENSE FUND P.O. BOX 2016 JACKSON, MS 39205-0291.

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